Cost Comparison for the Transfer of Select Calcined Waste Canisters to the Monitored Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain, NV

This report performs a life-cycle cost comparison of three proposed canister designs for the shipment and disposition of Idaho National Laboratory high-level calcined waste currently in storage at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center to the proposed national monitored geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Concept A (2 × 10-ft) and Concept B (2 × 15-ft) canisters are comparable in design, but they differ in size and waste loading options and vary proportionally in weight. The Concept C (5.5 × 17.5-ft) canister (also called the “super canister”), while similar in design to the other canisters, is considerably larger and heavier than Concept A and B canisters and has a greater wall thickness. This report includes estimating the unique life-cycle costs for the three canister designs. Unique life-cycle costs include elements such as canister purchase and filling at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center, cask preparation and roundtrip consignment costs, final disposition in the monitored geologic repository (including canister off-loading and placement in the final waste disposal package for disposition), and cask purchase. Packaging of the calcine "as-is" would save $2.9 to$3.9 billion over direct vitrification disposal in the proposed national monitored geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Using the larger Concept C canisters would use 0.75 mi less of tunnel space, cost $1.3 billion less than 10-ft canisters of Concept A, and would be complete in 6.2 years

An inclusive risk assessment tool for travel and fieldwork

Travel and fieldwork are integral to the geosciences, and it is usual for students, academics and professionals to need to assess the risks and hazards of a planned trip in advance. In the UK, health and safety law focusses on the idea of a “risk assessment” - a process by which hazards are identified and mitigations are planned to reduce the overall risk of the activity. A recent review of our risk assessment procedures highlighted the need to better consider the needs of a diverse community, including those with “protected characteristics” in UK law. These are defined in the Equality Act 2010 as: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. We present our improved risk assessment forms and suggest some approaches to considering hazards and appropriate mitigations that particularly affect those people with protected characteristics. These include the need to consider how laws and attitudes, such as those towards women, or LGBT+ people, may affect the safety of participants. It is particularly important to address this in the geosciences, where fieldwork is frequently an integral part of teaching and learning activities

Identification of the honey bee swarming process by analysing the time course of hive vibrations

Honey bees live in groups of approximately 40,000 individuals and go through their reproductive cycle by the swarming process, during which the old queen leaves the nest with numerous workers and drones to form a new colony. In the spring time, many clues can be seen in the hive, which sometimes demonstrate the proximity to swarming, such as the presence of more or less mature queen cells. In spite of this the actual date and time of swarming cannot be predicted accurately, as we still need to better understand this important physiological event. Here we show that, by means of a simple transducer secured to the outside wall of a hive, a set of statistically independent instantaneous vibration signals of honey bees can be identified and monitored in time using a fully automated and non-invasive method. The amplitudes of the independent signals form a multi-dimensional time-varying vector which was logged continuously for eight months. We found that combined with specifically tailored weighting factors, this vector provides a signature highly specific to the swarming process and its build up in time, thereby shedding new light on it and allowing its prediction several days in advance. The output of our monitoring method could be used to provide other signatures highly specific to other physiological processes in honey bees, and applied to better understand health issues recently encountered by pollinators

Synthesis of Electrophiles Derived from Dimeric Aminoboranes and Assessing Their Utility in the Borylation of π Nucleophiles

Dimeric aminoboranes, [H2BNR2]2 (R = Me or CH2CH2) containing B2N2 cores, can be activated by I2, HNTf2 (NTf2 = [N(SO2CF3)2]), or [Ph3C][B(C6F5)4] to form isolable H2B(μ-NR2)2BHX (for X = I or NTf2). For X = [B(C6F5)4]− further reactivity, presumably between [H2B(μ-NMe2)2BH][B(C6F5)4] and aminoborane, forms a B3N3-based monocation containing a three-center two electron B-(μ-H)-B moiety. The structures of H2B(μ-NMe2)2BH(I) and [(μ-NMe2)BH(NTf2)]2 indicated a sterically crowded environment around boron, and this leads to the less common O-bound mode of NTf2 binding. While the iodide congener reacted very slowly with alkynes, the NTf2 analogues were more reactive, with hydroboration of internal alkynes forming (vinyl)2BNR2 species and R2NBH(NTf2) as the major products. Further studies indicated that the B2N2 core is maintained during the first hydroboration, and that it is during subsequent steps that B2N2 dissociation occurs. In the mono-boron systems, for example, iPr2NBH(NTf2), NTf2 is N-bound; thus, they have less steric crowding around boron relative to the B2N2 systems. Notably, the monoboron systems are much less reactive in alkyne hydroboration than the B2N2-based bis-boranes, despite the former being three coordinate at boron while the latter are four coordinate at boron. Finally, these B2N2 electrophiles are much more prone to dissociate into mono-borane species than pyrazabole [H2B(μ-N2C3H3)]2 analogues, making them less useful for the directed diborylation of a single substrate

Time-scale and other invariants of integrative mechanical behavior in living cells.

In dealing with systems as complex as the cytoskeleton, we need organizing principles or, short of that, an empirical framework into which these systems fit. We report here unexpected invariants of cytoskeletal behavior that comprise such an empirical framework. We measured elastic and frictional moduli of a variety of cell types over a wide range of time scales and using a variety of biological interventions. In all instances elastic stresses dominated at frequencies below 300 Hz, increased only weakly with frequency, and followed a power law; no characteristic time scale was evident. Frictional stresses paralleled the elastic behavior at frequencies below 10 Hz but approached a Newtonian viscous behavior at higher frequencies. Surprisingly, all data could be collapsed onto master curves, the existence of which implies that elastic and frictional stresses share a common underlying mechanism. Taken together, these findings define an unanticipated integrative framework for studying protein interactions within the complex microenvironment of the cell body, and appear to set limits on what can be predicted about integrated mechanical behavior of the matrix based solely on cytoskeletal constituents considered in isolation. Moreover, these observations are consistent with the hypothesis that the cytoskeleton of the living cell behaves as a soft glassy material, wherein cytoskeletal proteins modulate cell mechanical properties mainly by changing an effective temperature of the cytoskeletal matrix. If so, then the effective temperature becomes an easily quantified determinant of the ability of the cytoskeleton to deform, flow, and reorganize

Can a “state of the art” chemistry transport model simulate Amazonian tropospheric chemistry?

We present an evaluation of a nested high-resolution Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS)-Chem chemistry transport model simulation of tropospheric chemistry over tropical South America. The model has been constrained with two isoprene emission inventories: (1) the canopy-scale Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature (MEGAN) and (2) a leaf-scale algorithm coupled to the Lund-Potsdam-Jena General Ecosystem Simulator (LPJ-GUESS) dynamic vegetation model, and the model has been run using two different chemical mechanisms that contain alternative treatments of isoprene photo-oxidation. Large differences of up to 100 Tg C yr^(−1) exist between the isoprene emissions predicted by each inventory, with MEGAN emissions generally higher. Based on our simulations we estimate that tropical South America (30–85°W, 14°N–25°S) contributes about 15–35% of total global isoprene emissions. We have quantified the model sensitivity to changes in isoprene emissions, chemistry, boundary layer mixing, and soil NO_x emissions using ground-based and airborne observations. We find GEOS-Chem has difficulty reproducing several observed chemical species; typically hydroxyl concentrations are underestimated, whilst mixing ratios of isoprene and its oxidation products are overestimated. The magnitude of model formaldehyde (HCHO) columns are most sensitive to the choice of chemical mechanism and isoprene emission inventory. We find GEOS-Chem exhibits a significant positive bias (10–100%) when compared with HCHO columns from the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) for the study year 2006. Simulations that use the more detailed chemical mechanism and/or lowest isoprene emissions provide the best agreement to the satellite data, since they result in lower-HCHO columns

Der frühe Beginn der Zwangsstörung

Einleitung: Die vorliegende Untersuchung geht der Fragestellung nach, ob sich eine Zwangsstörung, die bereits im Kindes- bzw. Jugendalter beginnt, von einer Zwangsstörung, die erst im Erwachsenenalter beginnt, hinsichtlich Schweregrad und Symptomatik unterscheidet. Patienten und Methoden: Eine Stichprobe von 370 Patienten mit Zwangsstörung (ICD-10 F42), die sich zwischen 1998 und 2002 stationär in der Psychosomatischen Klinik Windach befanden, wurde in eine Early-Onset-Gruppe (Störungsbeginn ≤15 Jahre) und in eine Late-Onset-Gruppe (Störungsbeginn ≥16 Jahre) aufgeteilt. Die Gruppen wurden über ICD-10-Diagnosen und Y-BOCSWerte verglichen. Ergebnisse: Beim Schweregrad zeigte sich, dass 20,5% der Early-Onset-Gruppe, aber lediglich 8,7% der Late-Onset-Gruppe unter einer «massiven Zwangsstörung» leiden. Bei der Symptomatik zeigte sich, dass die Early-Onset-Gruppe häufiger die Diagnose «Zwangsgedanken und -handlungen gemischt» (76,9%)erhält als die Late-Onset-Gruppe (61,8%). Außerdem nennt die Early-Onset-Gruppe sowohl für die Gegenwart als auch für die Vergangenheit mehr Symptome als die Late-Onset-Gruppe (Gegenwart 8,2 vs. 7,0; Vergangenheit 5,5 vs. 3,9 Symptomgruppen). Weiter ergaben sich inhaltliche Unterschiede der Zwangsgedanken und Zwangshandlungen. Schlussfolgerungen: Early-Onset-Patienten scheinen häufiger von einer massiven Form der Zwangsstörung und einer größeren Symptomvielfalt betroffen zu sein als Late-Onset-Patienten. Ob es sich bei der Zwangsstörung mit Beginn im Kindes- und Jugendalter um einen abgrenzbaren Subtypus handelt, konnte jedoch in dieser Untersuchung nicht eindeutig geklärt werden und bedarf weiterer Forschungen.Introduction: This study investigates if obsessive compulsive disorder with early onset differs in severity and symptomatology from that with late onset. Patients and Methods: A sample of 370 patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD; ICD 10 F42) who received in-patient treatment at the psychosomatic clinic of Windach between 1998 and 2002 were divided into an early-onset group (onset ≤15 years) and a late-onset group (onset ≥16 years). Groups were compared regarding ICD-10 diagnosis and Y-BOCS scores. Results: Considering severity of the disorder 20.5% of the early-onset group but merely 8.7% of the late-onset group suffered from an extreme form of OCD. With respect to symptomatology, the early-onset group was diagnosed with ‘obsessions and compulsions, mixed’ (76.9%) more often than the lateonset group (61.8%). Also, the early-onset group reported a wider variety of symptoms both for the present and for the past than the late-onset group (present 8,2 vs 7.0; past 5.5 vs 3.9 types of symptoms). There were also differences in the content of rumination and types of compulsive rituals. Conclusions: Patients with early-onset OCD seem to be more frequently affected by an extreme form of OCD and to experience a higher variety of symptoms than patients with late-onset OCD. If early-onset OCD can be considered a distinct subtype could not be answered unequivocally by the results of this study. This question needs additional research

Formaldehyde over North America and the North Atlantic during the summer 2004 INTEX campaign: Methods, observed distributions, and measurement‐model comparisons

A tunable diode laser absorption spectrometer (TDLAS) was operated on the NASA DC‐8 aircraft during the summer INTEX‐NA study to acquire ambient formaldehyde (CH2O) measurements over North America and the North Atlantic Ocean from ∼0.2 km to ∼12.5 km altitude spanning 17 science flights. Measurements of CH2O in the boundary layer and upper troposphere over the southeastern United States were anomalously low compared to studies in other years, and this was attributed to the record low temperatures over this region during the summer of 2004. Formaldehyde is primarily formed over the southeast from isoprene, and isoprene emissions are strongly temperature‐dependent. Despite this effect, the median upper tropospheric (UT) CH2O mixing ratio of 159 pptv from the TDLAS over continental North America is about a factor of 4 times higher than the median UT value of 40 pptv observed over remote regions during TRACE‐P. These observations together with the higher variability observed in this study all point to the fact that continental CH2O levels in the upper troposphere were significantly perturbed during the summer of 2004 relative to more typical background levels in the upper troposphere over more remote regions. The TDLAS measurements discussed in this paper are employed together with box model results in the companion paper by Fried et al. to further examine enhanced CH2O distributions in the upper troposphere due to convection. Measurements of CH2O on the DC‐8 were also acquired by a coil enzyme fluorometric system and compared with measurements from the TDLAS system